Three Cops Placed On Leave After Standing By While Man Begging For Help Drowned

08.06.2022 - 18:23 / perezhilton.com

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

Three police officers in Arizona have been placed on administrative leave after standing by and watching as a man drown in a reservoir in the city of Tempe.

Disturbing bodycam footage has been released of 34-year-old Sean Bickings interacting with cops in the moments leading up to his drowning death following an “alleged fight” with a woman claiming to be his wife.

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The incident occurred back on May 28, in the early hours of the morning, when Tempe cops responded to the reported fight between Bickings and his purported wife, who was identified only as Susan. Now, bodycam footage from the incident has been released to the public — and people are up in arms over Bickings’ death, with many convinced his drowning was all too preventable.

In the footage, three officers approach the woman, who admits to having some “issues” with her husband but adds he has not been violent towards her. The officers take Bickings some distance away to calm him down, but the distressed man suddenly jumps over one of the four-foot railings that rings the Tempe Town Lake reservoir.

Asking cops if he is “free to go,” Bickings walks down to the water line as an officer leans up to the railing and says:

Bickings wades in anyway and starts swimming, making it maybe 100 feet out into the water. It seems clear they know this is dangerous as one officer says to another on camera:

Another officer advises the first to keep an eye on Bickings and leaves to summon a boat for rescue.

A bike-mounted cop who, at this point, has ridden down across a bridge to the scene, warns the remaining officers present that turbines at the other end of the reservoir could